Chapter 19: Light

A year prior.

"I know you're smart," Lhyna said as she looked down at her protege Lantorn. The glowing yellow Jackal grinned and wore a white vest. Then Lhyna grinned at Lantorn, and presented her a book.

"Lhyna, this is the book of the treasures," Lantorn said as she stared down at the hardbound leather of the titleless book. "There's no way I can keep it."

"You have to because I'm gifting it to you." The white, nightmarish Lhyna said, "You're my best disciple yet, and the best at conjuring horror."

Lantorn ran her paw over the cover. Yes, genuine leather. She tugged at the front cover, but none of it opened. She glanced up at Lhyna. She gave a nervous grin and kept trying to pull it open.

"You can't do it that way." Lhyna shook her head. "I made it special. Several spells have locks on it. You need to find someone who can understand and control emotion, someone who understands or controls their willpower, and someone who understands how to be responsible, or perhaps learn all three yourself."

Lantorn laughed, and said, "I think I already know all three, right? You already said I'm great at making others feel horrified."

Lhyna nodded. "You have the emotion down. I call you an empath. It happens you understand others and their needs."

Lantorn realized this was a real test. She'd already proven herself to Lhyna for years now. Never did she question where the treasures were at. Never did she question her, or invoke her wrath. Never did she stop too soon when it came to nightmares.

She needed to prove herself to Lhyna, at all costs. It was Lhyna who had to be protected and guarded over. Lhyna was her queen.

Lantorn said, "I think I can amass a small army for the requirements you need." She wagged her tail and walked amongst the endless rows of books in the library. It had been part of the floating islands Lhyna lived on.

Each island had been shards of the moon. The moon temple it was called contained the savage beast Lhyna invoked.

Lantorn exited the library, and jumped from stone to stone to the tallest temple. It stood, a pillar almost scraping the air, made of pure obsidian. No one ever entered it. To break that pillar meant summoning the greatest being the world had ever seen.

The Eater of Planets.

With that power, combined with the power of the sword, Lantorn had all the pieces. She could, at last, protect the queen for good.

If Lhyna could know that Lantorn cared no single bit. Lantorn kept that ruse up for years. Too much time wasted appealing to some goddess of the moon. One who had temperamental changes because of having two people inside of her.

"First thing first, I have to find someone who happens to be dependable, don't I?" she asked, staring down at the book.

***

I know fear is power.

Lantorn walked streets known to her. The peeled paint streets. The streets stained in muck, where all lived in fear.

She could teach anyone to follow her. Make someone a servant, of dependable status. What she needed in particular was someone more loyal to her than she was to Lhyna. A creature who could take any truth, willing to surpass the limits.

She heard the street brawl, and saw the police running after a boh. The boh carried ample amounts of Drakold. The fat creature attempted to squeeze into an alleyway, but the cops took him down.

Lantorn lit up and shot several blasts of light covered power into the cops. It threw them all away. The boh grabbed one cop, and smashed him down on his back, before staring at Lantorn.

"I know who you are, even if you don't know who I am yet," Lantorn said with a grin as she stared at a previous victim.

"I don't know who you are," the boh said. "I don't know why you helped but you better back up." Maybe his subconscious knew to be afraid.

"You will never talk to me like that again," Lantorn said. "I am someone who has seen your own nightmares."

The boh growled and approached her, and slashed at her with his claws. She jumped from the boh and landed on the pavement.

"You once had a sister, a brother, and two parents. Until one day both your parents died. You lived in the upper parts of town."

The boh blinked. "How do you know that?"

"I know you lived in those upper parts for several years. It wasn't until after that death you found none of your relatives cared to take you in. You went on to foster care system. The system didn't bother to take care of you either, or your little siblings."

"I don't care if you looked me up," the boh said. "I still haven't heard why you're coming after me, all I know is to not trust you."

Lantorn told the boh, "Joy can be more than wealth and can exceed your expectations. Too long we live in fear, like I did. You can instead enjoy life without fear. A life without despair."

The boh tapped his claws against his shoulder. He stared at the gray skies and said, "I'm listening. Say who you are then."

Lantorn said, "I worked with Lhyna, and I used to be her guard. I am going to coup her, and I'm going to take over as queen of light. You can get behind that, right?"

The boh said, "I heard rumors that Lhyna could take over others' minds. You know and enter their nightmares. That sounded like a bunch of, well, not real, and I was like, 'sounds wrong'. You're now trying to tell me something I thought was wrong is right?"

Lantorn said, "Yes."

The boh said, "That that something is that Lhyna's been invading my dreams for the past few years now?"

Lantorn told him, "I can prove it. Your first dream you ever saw her, you sat in a bath tub. A bath tub made of your own spit because your couldn't stop spitting, and teeth filled the bath tub. Probably because that was the first time you ever resorted to dishonest means for gaining wealth."

The boh almost licked at the stub of tooth he had. It had been broken off when he attempted a pickpocketing. "I took from major shops after that day."

Lantorn said, "I know, and now you're going to be taking the most major thing you've ever took. Something that none in all of Wysdom can do. You're taking back control of your existence, Arber."

Arber nodded, and Lantorn glowed as the first pages flipped open of what Lantorn called the Book of Light. It read on about the first location of the first treasure, and Lantorn grinned.

***

I know fear is power and that I am that power.

Arber came with Lantorn onto the series of floating islands. They were right outside of Wysdom, and Arber looked overhead to see the rest of the town. He gawked at the sight.

"Are you sure about this? I'm afraid of heights," he said.

Lantorn told him, "Fear will hold you back, you have to control fear. You use fear on others to manipulate them, that way you control them. You need control."

Arber took a deep breath, and she walked down a narrow bridge. Arber grabbed tight hold of the reins, and both traversed down into the bottom of an island.

Lantorn took him around a narrow ridge wrapping to a small door. No one saw it underneath all the cracks and nooks of the island. Lantorn pushed open the door and entered. Arber stared down, felt vertigo hit, then crawled into the hallway.

Lantorn walked with him in a claustrophia inducing tunnel, at most three feet wide, and six feet tall. The air of secrecy hung overhead, and Arber took measured breaths. "Control your fear," Lantorn reminded him.

The boh scratched his claws against the walls, and they got into a larger chamber. Lantorn took several steps down and they saw machines with blue lights on.

The boh examined the station, and stared at a giant tree in the center. The tree had a dark blue gem in the center. "What is that?"

"That's the Gem of Storms," Lantorn said. "That is within the Tree of Winds, which is safeguarded by the tree beings." Cables and wired wrapped around the tree, giving a sci-fi vibe to it. The surrounding computers reached upwards and the tree seemed to be drained to power various turbines.

"This is where the wind is made to lift the islands," Arber realized. Lantorn nodded. "Got it, and this gem is part of the sword?"

Lantorn said, "That's right, but the tree exists here and in a pocket dimension. Soon as you go to touch it, you will enter the pocket dimension, if you can enter it."

"And you can only enter it if?"

"If you unlock the three total virtues. The Creator Dragon Goddess of the Lightning made sure that none of us could enter without Willpower."

"Great, and you're saying I could be dependable, but you don't have someone with will," Arber said. "Okay, what if we try entering right now?"

Lantorn said, "You simply won't. It will be like you try to touch the tree and never quite get to it, almost an optical illusion with you walking forever. Or until you give up and turn tail, come crawling back."

Arber shook his head. "I've come too far to simply give up. Anyway, what's with this Creator Dragon anyway, and why does she care about this sword?"

"I know little about the swords. The Creator Dragons each created one of the seven swords of the elements. Fire, Water, Ice, Lightning and Wind, Nature, Poison, and Psychic." Lantorn stared deep at the gem she couldn't touch. "I tried riding the cables inside, and that led to me stuck on cables for days. It is not a good idea."

Arber said, "Got it, anyhow, you forgot about Light and Dark."

Lantorn said, "There's no record they made their own swords. I guess they never thought about it." Arber shrugged.

"Anyway," Lantorn said, "Within the tree it holds the three beings who safeguard the sword."

Arber said, "I thought Lhyna made all the rules?" Lantorn shook her head. "Then Lhyna made a deal with the beings?"

Lantorn stared down. "Lhyna kidnapped the three beings. She took them, shoved them in the tree, and it drains their powers to this day." Problem was, individuals created mana, and absorbed mana from the atmosphere, meaning no one could ever run out. They had been stuck in stasis.

Arber's eyes widened, and he took a few horrified steps back. "That is despicable, and you support this?"

Lantorn growled at him, but Arber stood tall. "I support few of Lhyna's concepts, and I think this is horrifying. She can use it on us at any point to suck our own powers. But it powers each of the books, and she needs the disciples. That way she can bring out her new world order."

"A world of nightmares," Arber said, nodding. "That way she can control others by controlling their fear like you said. She sounds bad."

Lantorn said, "You know we're wrapped up in this, right? We must escape our situation. I have an idea, but this will take over a year. We need to acquire each treasure, instead of teaming up with others. Got that?" Arber grinned. Lantorn grinned back.

Arber said, "She is bad. What happens after we make the sword? We use it to kill her and then we maintain godhood?"

Lantorn said, "We become gods, we kill her, and we summon the being trapped in the temple, the eater of the planets."

Arber's eyes widened as he heard that name, and Lantorn told him, "I think you can control your fear, and I can control my fear, which is good when we face fear itself."

Arber watched Lantorn walk back down the hallway, and thought about the beings stuck, being absorbed. Maybe he could free them? Later, at the end of the month.